Happy to see widening options for tribal women: President Murmu

Murmu, who is on a three-day visit to Jharkhand, addressed a conference organised by the union ministry of tribal affairs at Khunti, the scheduled district home to tribal icon Birsa Munda

President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday urged tribal women to come forward and reap the benefits of government schemes. She said the tribal women should ‘make the most’ of the welfare schemes run by government agencies.

President Droupadi Murmu addressed a women conference organized by union ministry of tribal affairs (Twitter/@rashtrapatibhvn)

The President said that she was happy with the widening opportunities for the present generation of tribal youth across the country.

Murmu, who is on a three-day visit to Jharkhand, addressed a conference organised by the Union ministry of tribal affairs at Khunti, the scheduled district home to tribal icon Birsa Munda.

“As a young girl, my grandmother would often take me along to pick Mahua in the village. We would store them and would eat them at times. Today I am so happy to see how the tribal women and the self-help groups are making cakes and ladoos from it and earning money,” said Murmu.

The President said that being a woman or being born in a tribal society is not a disadvantage. She shared that there are countless inspiring examples of the contribution of women in the country and that women have made invaluable contributions in social reforms, politics, economy, education, science and research, business, sports and military forces and many other fields.

Murmu said that to become successful in any field, it is very important that they recognise their talent and do not judge themselves on the scale of others. Recalling her own journey, the President said she was standing at the dais all because of democracy.

“Don’t just get laid back thinking the government would provide everything. You will have to take one or two extra steps than the government to move ahead. And, once you get ahead, don’t forget those lagging,” added Murmu.

The President said that the tribal society presents ideal examples in many fields. “One of these are the non-prevalence of the dowry system in the tribal society. Many people in our society, even the well-educated ones, have not been able to give up the dowry system till date,” she said.

Meanwhile, addressing the gathering, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren urged the Centre to grant a separate ‘Sarna code’ to tribals.

“There is a need to preserve the tribal culture. We have demanded a separate Sarna code. We also want tribal languages Ho, Mundari and Kurukh to be included in the eighth schedule. We urge the Centre to grant these,” said Soren.

Later in the day, the President visited the IIT campus in Namkum and handed over medals to students at its second convocation ceremony.